Risky Business with Witnesses
by signelchan
Summary: Maki is an assassin who knows better than to get attached to or make mistakes with anything relating to her job. The thing is, it's a lot harder than it looks to maintain that standard.


Maki Harukawa was not one for playing nice or fair, nor was she one that could be called upon for anything that didn't have the chance of getting ugly. She was best for coming into a situation, killing whoever was at fault, and then disappearing back into the shadows from where she'd came, and that was just how things went with her. Love and attachment were foreign concepts to her and her assassin mind, and anyone who attempted to coerce her into being well-behaved on those fronts was quick to find a blade against their throat or a gun against their head, depending on the situation and how prepared she was for the job.

That didn't stop people from constantly trying to get her to let them off easy though, much to her dismay. She had a lot of blood on her hands solely from people who thought it would be a good use of their time to beg her for mercy under the condition that she loved them deep down. Oftentimes the people begging were vile, scummy souls that she knew the world would be better without, but she also had offed a few people she knew personally because they chose to pander to emotions and feelings she didn't have rather than be smart and not be such jerks. Some of those deaths were unnecessary, certainly, but Maki was not one to care if she was killing too many people because assassin work was her livelihood. It was how she made her rent payments every month without fail, and she was not going to complain about the money for relatively little work.

There were times that she did feel a bit of remorse for what she did, but it wasn't ever because of something her victim said or did. It came from the reaction to her murdering, seeing and hearing how the people who cared about the newly deceased handled the information. A lot of the time it wasn't considered too much of a loss, but when she killed someone with serious attachments to others, tiny little fractions of what she assumed were feelings would appear in her heart, trying to make her regret what she'd done and turn her back on that life. It never worked, she would always push those supposed feelings deeper down, and so her life went on as it always did.

Until the night that turned her entire assassin career upside down, where she was faced with multiple innocent victims of someone else's game, splattered in the blood of her target after she'd killed him, shooting him with a crossbow right between the eyes. He was a dirty man, controlled by some higher-up that she'd loved to have brought to justice herself, and taking him out was doing the whole world a favor, that much she knew. As he fell backwards, the arrow that pierced his skull killing him instantly, the people cowering at his feet all raised their heads, their backs drizzled with the blood the shot had immediately produced. "Stay down," she barked, holding her crossbow before her with the intention of shooting it at anyone who came at her. "Don't get up until you're told you can."

The people on their hands and knees cowered at her demand but ultimately followed it, and Maki was able to tread carefully towards the fallen man, checking his pockets for any sort of identifying information for himself or his boss. When her search came up short she kicked his leg, already growing cold in death, and ordered the people to stand. Some staggered to their feet, others rose without much hesitation, and others still didn't rise at all. _Other fatalities that I'll be blamed for,_ she told herself, counting the bodies that were visibly riddled with bloodied wounds. "What is it that you people do here?" she asked, lowering the crossbow to look less threatening. "I need to know, so that I can report back about what this man was doing to you."

No one seemed interested in talking to her, even though by all means Maki was not a physically intimidating person, with her short stature and petite frame, but the crossbow was still visible in her hands and that meant she was a dirty murderer, just like the man who'd been antagonizing them. "Look, I get it, why trust me when I broke in here to put a stop to someone trying to kill you all, but—"

"This is a detective agency, ma'am, and you're…" It was one of the women standing further back from where Maki was, relatively unscathed from the night's events, and yet she was rightfully shaken up over what had happened. "You're in here holding a murder weapon and expecting us to let you know what we know. Wouldn't you think that's foolish?"

"—and that's what I needed to know. Detective agency, guess it makes sense that someone working for Enoshima and her regime would want to off you all." A pause, as Maki looked at the crossbow before tossing it aside, raising her hands to prove she didn't have another weapon that she was holding. "I'm on your side in all of this, I promise. I'm trying to stop her and her cronies myself, then maybe I can get out from under the grasp of the assassin corps."

"Why would anyone fall for that sort of garbage?" another voice called out, from near where the woman was standing, this man kneeling as he pressed a sleeve down on a wound on his leg. "I'm sure you're going to turn around and have us all killed for sport now that you've got him dead. Can't have any witnesses left alive, I bet."

"Normally no, the witnesses die too," Maki admitted, thinking about all of the innocent me and women she'd gunned down to protect herself, but there were too many people still alive in the room for her to effectively do the job. She could see people reaching for their phones, and she knew that her only chance of surviving the night was to escape right then, but she needed to know what they knew about their common enemy, so that she could do something about them. "I'm not killing anyone else tonight, you all are doing something important and I don't want to see your work go to waste."

One of the two who had been on the floor at the original assailant's feet cleared his throat, looking timid when Maki's eyes fell on him. "I don't think you understand," he said, voice wavering as her gaze narrowed. "You can't walk out of here without facing justice, we'll find you if you do. That's what detectives do, they solve crimes, and solving the murder of the man who tried murdering all of us is…technically solving a crime…"

Her blood ran cold at that truth, and without trying to beg or barter further she bolted for the door she entered through, hearing the yells and footsteps of the employees following her down the hall, but by the time she'd gotten outside and was able to slip away into the night they couldn't follow her further. It wasn't until she was halfway back to the orphanage she called home that she realized she'd never picked up her crossbow, evidence that would damn her to death in the case she'd just created by being kind for once in her life.

The truth was, she wouldn't have been able to kill every single person in that room without looking for a weapon or two on the original menace's body, because the only thing she'd brought with her had been that crossbow. She couldn't cause mass murder with something with such a limited firing capacity, and she hadn't expected there to be so many witnesses to her committing a murder in the first place. Even though she'd saved so many lives, she was just as guilty as the man she'd killed, and she knew she'd have to watch her back in the coming days just in case they began pursuing her (although she was no stranger to being hunted for what she'd done, but usually she was being chased as a "mysterious person", not as a criminal whose face an entire detective agency had seen).

Her superiors at the orphanage were none too pleased with her decision to not murder all witnesses, and she was put through the rigors of punishment to atone for what she'd done. After going through a week of minimal food, of heavy labors, and of being put down and beaten whenever the chance arose, she was handed another task in the search for Enoshima and putting a stop to the criminal underbelly of the city. She was warned that if she messed up with her leniency a second time, she'd be punished in worse ways, and because she knew that a second failure more or less would result in her death, she was determined to do right by her employers and get back in their good graces.

The assignment was clear, take down a high-ranking member of a peaceful criminal organization in the hopes of getting Enoshima's gang to start raising a ruckus in response, and she was eager to get it done. Sure, the members of the DICE organization weren't murderers and they weren't all that bad, but they were just annoying enough that the real masterminds would relish in one of their heads being taken out on a hit, and Maki felt that the whole plan would work perfectly for her. She just had to slip into the mangy apartment that she was given the address to, wait until the guy showed up, kill him cleanly, and then hope that news of his death spread sooner rather than later.

Getting into his apartment was easy, once she knew with certainty which one it was and which window would lead right into his bathroom. There was no glass to be shattered, not when it was unlocked and open for anyone to sneak right inside, and then the waiting game began; there were no lights on inside and no one to speak of that she could hear through the thin walls, although there were neighbors upstairs making quite the racket. She could hear someone up there asking who was there, who was rattling around downstairs, and soon enough there was banging on the front door, a concerned neighbor asking if everything was okay. Naturally she remained silent, hanging out just around the corner from the front door to watch in case the door came flying open on her, but the disturbance quickly subsided and the noise resumed upstairs.

But just when Maki thought she could catch her breath more banging started at the door and she heard the distinct call of a voice she'd heard recently—a detective she'd saved, she was sure of it. "Please, we know Kokichi's not home and someone's obviously in there, just open the door and let us sort things out," the man said, in the same timid tone that had been used there during the hostage situation. "He's known to bring his friends home and abandon them when work calls, we want to help you."

Words began to catch in her throat, wanting so badly to respond to the offers of kindness but knowing that speaking would speed up the process of her death. She couldn't keep hiding in the dark apartment, the detective and whatever friend he had with him would begin to grow suspicious and she'd have an entirely different problem on her hands. "Yeah! Listen to Shuichi, he's definitely the kind of guy you can trust! We're here to help!"

"The reassurance is appreciated, but mentioning my name wasn't exactly necessary." How it hadn't hit Maki before then that she'd crossed paths with the up-and-coming detective Shuichi Saihara in that whole situation, she didn't know, but now she knew she was in hot water if she opened that door. He was known for solving crimes that weren't related to death or dying, but he could solve a murder if needed, and being able to bring justice to all sorts of notable assassinations and killings would only bolster his good name. If there was any chance of survival, she needed to get out the way she came and never return to the scene, and hope that she hadn't left any identifying details behind when she did.

At the same time, though, she knew that turning tail and running would end with her being slaughtered for being useless to her orphanage, and if she could go out in a blaze of glory and usefulness it would be better than going out a coward. "Okay, okay, you've got me," she finally said, lowering the pitch of her voice to try and mask who she was. "But I don't trust detective folk, so when I open the door you send your friend in, got it?"

"Look, I wouldn't blame you to be wary of me if Kokichi's been messing with you. I'll send Kaito in, and you get two minutes before I'm in there with you." That was another name Maki had heard before, but it was a common one and she didn't know if this guy was going to be a random citizen, or one of the more notable Kaitos in the city. If he turned out to be a detective as well, she was going to turn the blade she had secured under her skirt on herself and end things right there, but she had hopes that she wasn't going to need to. "Now open the door so he can get inside, I'm ready to start timing."

She came from around the corner and approached the door, feeling all sorts of deadbolts and locks secured, or intentionally left unlocked, a rather obvious attempt to keep people like her out of the apartment. Once she had undone everything keeping the door closed she turned the knob to show that it was unlocked, and the men on the other side pushed it open, before one of them entered. It was a moment of stupidity and faith that she was acting in, but Maki wanted to believe that she hadn't been duped, and so once the door was closed once again she turned on the closest light and was met with the image of a man she'd seen on magazines but never in the flesh, a welcome relief when it meant she wasn't dealing with a second detective. "You…you're the astronaut, aren't you?" she spat out, dropping the falsified voice in her surprise. "What in the world are you doing around here?"

"Uh, living my best life?" Kaito replied, tilting his head to one side as he looked Maki over, trying to see if he recognized her. "You don't seem like the kind of person Kokichi brings over and forgets about, what are you doing here?"

His face seemed genuinely concerned, and handsome as well, and Maki's immediate reaction was to lock one of the deadbolts to keep Shuichi out. "Long story," she said, reaching down to her thigh with her other hand, feeling the handle of her knife and considering grabbing it and ending this man's life on the spot. "Not one I'm really interested in sharing."

"Makes sense, sorry you had to get wrapped up in this."

_No, I'm sorry _you_ had to get wrapped up in this_, she thought, a finger wrapping around the handle, but she froze there as she looked into Kaito's deep purple eyes, finding herself lost in the galaxy held within them. "Y-yeah, really wish I hadn't, but what can I do?" she replied, her finger losing its grip and sliding off, her skirt tumbling back down as she pulled her hand up towards her blushing face. She'd never been immobilized by love before, she'd never felt anything close to it, and in two sentences this man had her completely star-struck. "You don't look like the kind of guy who'd know this Ko…this asshole."

"Ha, yeah, only know 'im because he's our downstairs neighbor. We're kinda used to hearin' his new friends trying to get out the bathroom window, then we usually get down here and let them free. Never had one try to turn us away…" Tapping his chin in thought, Kaito noticed that Maki's eyes were fixed on his and he straightened up, stroking his tiny, purple goatee a single time before offering her his hand. "What do you say about us getting you out of here, before Shuichi bursts in and tries playing the hero?"

She knew that leaving through the front door would result in her death, but she was so in awe of this man that she didn't know what else she could do. "I…don't see why not," she told him, taking his hand and feeling him tightly squeeze hers, sending her heart aflutter. She'd never once considered what someone had in their pockets, in their wallets, in their phones, or in their hands before this—but now she was completely under his control and there was no saving her. "Just be warned, your friend might not have the best reaction to seeing me."

"What do ya mean, Shuichi's the nicest guy in the world!" Kaito barked out a laugh, before undoing the single lock Maki had set and opening the door, revealing them both and their hand-holding to Shuichi waiting on the other side. Exactly as she'd warned, Shuichi's reaction to seeing her, of all the people in the world, standing there was one of a silent frustration, as he recognized her as being the person who'd saved him from his hostage scenario by killing the person running everything, but when he saw her without a visible weapon he seemed to relax somewhat.

By the end of the night, after she'd been taken up to their apartment and everything (within reason) had been discussed, from where they knew each other from, to why she was at Kokichi's, the men decided that because she'd technically done a good thing in committing a crime, she wasn't deserving of being sent to her death. It was almost like they were adopting her out from under the orphanage's grasp, and she was going to be thankful for it and the second chance at life, especially since it meant getting to know her handsome astronaut savior much, much better.

She had never been one for playing fair, and the world recognized that and repaid her by giving her a new life where murdering wasn't the option, learning to love was.

* * *

**A/N: happy birthday Maki I love you so much I wrote two fics for the occasion yay**


End file.
